possible on-the-fly wah to (quasi) volume switching idea

[pinkjimiphoton]

so i was looking at my wah wishing it would do volume too. and i thought about it for about 40 seconds and realized now that 4pdt switches are available, common, and relatively cheap, it could be done with a single stomp of a 4pdt wired as shown in the attachment.

it is an experiment only, i haven't tried it yet, but it SHOULD work, at least to a point...

caveats: it will likely not have a great volume sweep and compromise may need to be found between the wah and volume options cuzza the amount of rotation of the pot by the pedal..  ie, where the wah sounds best may not be best for optimal volume

it may not go all the way "down" to off

it may not go all the way "up" to full blast

you MAY be able to add tapering trimmers to the circuit to make it work a little better on the volume side.... by soldering in a couple trimmers, you can likely get it to go "all the way off"... probably not all the way on.

may be worth adding trimmers to the wah side as well, so you can find a decent compromise with the sweep for both options

may need (a) pull down  resistor(s) so it doesn't "pop"

remember, it HAS NOT BEEN TRIED BY ME YET.... so no idea if it's gonna work as i expect. the layout below is not verified,
but if ya follow the connections it should most definitely work, tho how well? good question.

you may wanna go with a joe gagan 500k smooth pot, as it will likely improve the sweep of both wah and volume... like everything, it's a compromise

i haven't figured out how to add an LED. thinking may be better to do the switching electronically, but way above my present paygrade.

worst case scenario, you'll have to rewire your wah. nothing is irreversible with this mod.

hoping it works, and someone can find some benefit from it.
i plan on doing my main wah tomorrow afternoon and seeing if i can live with it.

ANYWAYS....

[pinkjimiphoton]

son of a bitch!!! 😉 it works!!! BUT it works like a jap wah, the wah and volume functions are opposite... heel down is full volume, toe down is ALMOST all the way down. wah works normally, NO POPS!!!
i will send ya a new layout when i'm done cuz i made this a little unclear before... and i added a 2.2n cap to it too to keep the treble suck down in volume mode, but it actually works!!!

[EBK]

Jimi, you are such a mad scientist!  I'm guessing you must try out all sorts of ideas that don't work, but you seem to at least have enough experience-driven luck/intuition (I intend this to be a compliment; I hope you take it that way) to keep you generously sharing new stuff here.  Rock on! 

[pinkjimiphoton]

here ya go!! verified layout. i used the color code in my ancient vox wah, but should be easy enough to do with any other kinds.

in a cheap ass pyle pro plastic wah, i think the volume will work normally.. their pot is actually backward from how we normally think of it being.
but anyways... it does work. and well!! surprisingly well!! but like  i said, it's like a 70's japanese wah,  the volume and wah functions are opposite. i kinda diggit. i may do it to my main wah, then i can ditch a volume pedal on my board!

anyways...

[pinkjimiphoton]

haha hi eric,
yeah, i don't pull off everything by any means... but most off the time, where there's a will, there's a way.
i just keep plugging til it does what i want it to, or close enough for rocknroll!